blood pressure

[bicktor]

My wife is experiencing fairly low distolic blood pressure,51. Her systolic is 115 and pulse is 55. An hour earlier her #'s were 145/57,pulse 60. She is taking med's to bring her BP down, Im thinking it may be too low, please advise,thanks,Bicktor

[NTB]

I don't believe there is any hard data from studies defining what BP is too low. A doc would generally say that unless there are problems with fainting or maybe loss of mental acuity, etc, then you shouldn't worry,

A woman who is small and thin is likely to have lower BP than the average person and do fine.

When she'd read at 145/57, you could have taken repeated measurements to see if that first one was an error. Sometimes things just go wacky with the monitor. Also make sure that she follows correct BP measuring procedure.

But if she regularly experiences readings like 145/57, then that could certainly be a concern because that's a high Pulse Pressure (the diff between the two).

I'd consider this: if her BP is too low, then maybe she can take less dosage of her med(s) or perhaps eliminate one if she's on combination therapy. Less med = fewer possible side effects. If she is on a beta blocker, e.g., then there'd be likely less problem with blood lipids or glucose.

On the other hand, if she's on a ACE Inhibitor and has Kidney Disease along with HTN, then she might *not* want a lower dose because an ACEI is directly effective in KD.

[Encephalomalcia]

My daughter's (age 11) has blood pressure of 110/54.  She as lively as ever.  If the blood pressure drops to in the 40's then it may be getting low.  The 145 is actually high.  My husband has high blood pressure, so we all take our blood pressure a lot.